


A Long Walk

by torestoreamends



Category: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child - Thorne & Rowling
Genre: Fill in Scene, Gen, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Compliant, Malfoy Family Feels
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-19
Updated: 2018-12-19
Packaged: 2019-09-23 01:44:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,312
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17071103
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/torestoreamends/pseuds/torestoreamends
Summary: This is the third time in the last week that Scorpius has made the long walk between the lake and the castle, and against all odds, it’s the worst.





	A Long Walk

**Author's Note:**

> Ever since I first saw the show I’ve been wanting to write the conversation between Scorpius and Draco as they walk from the lake to the school upon Scorpius’s return from the Voldemort timeline. I’m not sure why it’s taken me so long, but after chatting about this walk with a friend, here it finally is. 
> 
> Beta’d by Dr Abradystrix.

This is the third time in the last week that Scorpius has made the long walk between the lake and the castle, and against all odds, it’s the worst. It’s not as if there isn’t strong competition for that dubious accolade – Dementors, darkness, icy cold, confusion, and abject terror don’t exactly make for a pleasant afternoon stroll, but all of those things belonged to another world, a world that he planned to change. This walk is taking place in the proper world, _his_ world, and although that’s in part a welcome relief, it also means that this walk has very real, very permanent consequences waiting at the end of it.

Professor McGonagall is striding ahead of the group in frosty silence. Scorpius has never seen her look so severe. Her back is poker straight, and in her own way she’s just as scary as anything he encountered in that awful other world. She has the ability to take away all his dreams and everything he cares about just as surely as any Time-Turner. It’s even worse knowing that after everything he’s already done he’s still lying to her now, even if it is for a good reason. He’s very conscious of the cool press of metal against his skin beneath his shirt, and the weight of responsibility that comes with it.

He hugs the cloak he’s been given tighter around his body and wonders what’s about to happen. If he gets thrown out of school he’ll have to go home, and he doesn’t know how pleasant that will be, because he suspects that right now his dad is just as angry with him as McGonagall is. When he glances sideways he sees his dad marching stony-faced beside him and he shivers, remembering that same expression on the face of the other version of his dad.

“Are you cold?” His dad asks, catching his eye. “You’re still soaking wet.” He draws his wand, a sharp flick of a movement that makes Scorpius flinch involuntarily away from him. Draco freezes. He opens his mouth to speak, then he hesitates and glances down at his wand. “I can dry you off if it helps.”

“Oh.” Scorpius relaxes and shifts a step closer to his dad. He twists the corner of his cloak between his fingers and nods. “Okay.”

The spell rushes over him, and he flaps the cloak open and watches his clothes steam dry.

“Thanks,” he says, giving his dad – he has to keep reminding himself that it really is _his_ dad – a smile.

“That’s not Hogwarts uniform,” his dad says, gesturing to the shirt. “Where did you get that?”

“Oh, well...” Scorpius wraps the cloak round himself again to hide his clothes and the tell-tale lump of the Time-Turner, and tries flashing his dad another smile to distract him. “It’s complicated?”

His dad glances towards the castle which looms ahead of them as they approach, windows sparkling with light – it’s so much brighter and more welcoming than the other Hogwarts. “You’ll have to talk quickly then.”

“The uniform was just a little bit different at the Hogwarts I ended up in,” Scorpius says after a second’s consideration. It’s not even really a lie.

“And there were no Harry, Ginny, or Professor McGonagall,” Draco says, shooting him a hard look.

“A lot of things were a little bit different?” Scorpius tries hopefully. He knows it’s going to come out soon, but he’s not ready yet.

“I suppose I was a little bit different too, then,” his dad says coolly, but Scorpius catches the tiniest flicker of something in his expression.

Scorpius shrugs, robes flapping around him, and ducks his head. “A little bit.”

His dad nods. “And I suppose I’d rather not know where you and Albus got a Time-Turner.”

Scorpius summons his most winning smile. “We definitely didn’t steal it from Hermione’s office at the Ministry.”

“You stole it from-“ His dad expels a stream of air between his lips. “Was that Albus’s bright idea?” He turns round to glare at the Potters but none of them notice. Ginny has an arm round Albus and the two of them are deep in conversation, and Harry is staring at the ground as he walks, hands in his pockets, apparently lost in thought.

“Don’t blame him!” Scorpius tugs on his dad’s arm. “I didn’t have to go along with it.”

“A Time-Turner though.” His dad gives him the sort of hard look that means he’s in serious trouble. “You stole a Time-Turner, and then used it. Do you have any idea how stupid that-“

“Yes,” Scorpius interrupts, voice rising. “Yes, I do.” He holds his chin high and looks his dad in the eye. They’re only a couple of inches different in height, and Scorpius hadn’t appreciated that until a couple of days ago, but he knows it now, and he makes himself stand up straight and hold his dad’s gaze.

It works. After a second his dad nods and relents, and Scorpius curls back in on himself, hugging the cloak around his body as he bows his head. He tries not to notice his dad scrutinising him; instead he studies his shoes. He doesn’t want to talk about it anymore. Not to his dad. Not like this. Thankfully, his dad doesn’t press him with any more questions. Instead, as they reach the front steps of the castle he strides ahead to speak to Professor McGonagall, the pair of them pausing just outside the castle doors. After a couple of seconds she nods.

“You two,” she calls, gesturing to Albus and Scorpius. “Go and get changed. I’ll see you in my office in twenty minutes.”

Ginny gives Albus a gentle nudge forward, and together he and Scorpius rush down into the depths of the castle.

“What happened?” Albus asks, once they’re alone in their dorm. He tugs his wet top over his head and throws it onto the floor, then he turns his back on Scorpius while he searches for his pyjamas.

Scorpius takes the opportunity to whip the Time-Turner out from under his shirt and tuck it safely beneath his pillow. By the time Albus has pulled his top on and turned back to face him it’s well hidden, and Scorpius is perched on the edge of his bed, fiddling with his shirt buttons. “We did it. Cedric was alive.”

Albus stops, his pyjama bottoms hanging loosely in his hand. “We saved Cedric?”

Scorpius nods. “We saved him and it was terrible. You were gone. Everyone was dead. Voldemort was back.”

“Voldemort was-“ Albus drops the pyjama bottoms on the floor and comes over to kneel on Scorpius’s bed. He lowers his voice and leans in close, eyes wide. “Voldemort was back?”

Scorpius draws in a breath and looks down at his hands. “We pretty much destroyed the world.” He lifts his gaze and is met with utter bewilderment from Albus, which slowly closes off and shuts down into something blank and detached. Scorpius knows from long experience that this isn’t Albus not caring, this is Albus blaming himself.

“It wasn’t your fault,” Scorpius tries. “You didn’t know how it would turn out.” But it’s too little too late. Albus slides off the bed and snatches his pyjama bottoms up off the floor.

“Professor McGonagall will be waiting for us upstairs. We should go.” He turns his back on Scorpius and finishes getting changed in silence.

“Albus,” Scorpius says softly, making one last attempt, but it’s as if Albus doesn’t even hear him. With a sigh Scorpius gets to his feet and changes, for the first time in what feels like weeks, into his very own pair of soft, baggy pyjamas, and wraps his Slytherin dressing gown round himself. When he’s done he stands and watches Albus’s back as he slides his slippers onto his feet. This isn’t how Scorpius expected to celebrate getting to share a dorm with his best friend again after so long apart. He’d envisaged midnight feasts and lots and lots of sweets, not frosty silence.

“It’s nice to have you back in Slytherin again,” Scorpius says once they’re both changed and ready to go. “It feels like it’s been forever... But this is definitely you.” He gives Albus a smile that isn’t returned. Instead Albus just nods and looks down at his hands.

“Slytherin,” he mutters. “Definitely me. Shall we go?” Then he walks out of the dorm without waiting for an answer.

Scorpius sags his shoulders as the door clicks shut. He understands why Albus is blaming himself, but that doesn’t mean it’s really his fault. They both decided to go back after all. But convincing him of that is going to take some effort, and whatever questions they end up having to answer from Professor McGonagall aren’t going to help.

He sighs and looks around the room. Everything is so comfortingly emerald, and it’s so nice and warm and cosy. It’s good to be home, even if there is the distinct possibility that he might not be here for very much longer.

He pats his hangings fondly, smooths a crease out of his bedclothes, then lifts the corner of his pillow to check that the Time-Turner is still safely hidden underneath. Whatever happens next, he’s going to find a way to destroy it and end all this mess. The world will be a better place without Time-Turners.

When Scorpius finally leaves Slytherin house he finds his dad in the corridor waiting for him, pacing up and down in front of the wall. Albus is nowhere to be seen.

“There you are. I wondered if you’d decided to run away so you didn’t have to face Professor McGonagall.”

Scorpius shakes his head and messes with the belt of his dressing gown. “No. I wouldn’t want to run away.” He squares his shoulders resolutely and looks down at his feet. When the small voice in the back of his mind pipes up that maybe running away would be the more sensible option here, he thinks of Hermione and Ron and Snape facing down the Dementors to give him time to escape and set the world back on its proper path. They didn’t run away and he won’t either.

His dad is watching him. He can feel the close scrutiny of the gaze, and he glances up and meets his dad’s eyes.

“What-“ His dad pauses for a moment, and Scorpius stops and looks at him, head tilted to one side. “What’s happened to you?”

Scorpius twists his hands together and gives the same answer he gave in that other world. “I’ve seen myself in a different way.”

His dad steps closer to him, and Scorpius dodges back an inch, trying to keep a comfortable amount of space between them.

“In this other world,” Draco says softly, “where everything was a little bit different... you were a little bit different too?”

Scorpius shakes his head and avoids his dad’s eyes. “No. I was a lot different.”

“And your mother...”

Scorpius bows his head. “Gone. She’s always gone.”

His dad nods slowly and draws in a breath. “When you say that you were a lot different...”

Scorpius shrugs, throwing his hands down by his sides. “We’re Malfoys. This is the best we get. It’s either this or worse.”

His dad considers that for a second, bowing his head, a small frown on his face. “Scorpius, I think that you’re-“

“You were Head of Magical Law Enforcement in that world,” Scorpius interrupts, standing up tall again so he can look his dad in the eye. “Even if you weren’t on their side, you were doing a really good job of pretending to be. And I think-“ He draws in a breath, steeling himself to say the thing he’s been thinking since he met his dad in that world. “And I think it’s good that Mum was dead there. I don’t think she’d have liked what she saw. From either of us.” He holds his dad’s gaze for a second, then breaks eye contact and starts walking down the corridor, hunching back in on himself and trying to catch his breath, because there suddenly doesn’t seem to be much air down here in the dungeons.

His dad doesn’t seem to know what to say after that, and they climb up through the castle in silence, right until they reach the gargoyle that guards McGonagall’s office.

“Scorpius.”

Scorpius pauses and shuffles his feet on the floor, turning just an inch or two towards his dad.

“I’m sorry,” Draco says simply, and Scorpius waits for some sort of clarification, but it never comes. There are so many things that his dad could be sorry for that Scorpius doesn’t know where to start with working out which he’s referring to. But then again, maybe it’s not just one thing. Maybe it’s everything. Maybe his dad doesn’t really know where to start either.

Scorpius turns a little further towards him and twists his fingers together as he thinks. He thinks about everything he’s going to have to tell McGonagall, the truth about all the things he saw in both worlds. He thinks about how the other version of his dad had told him there was something of Astoria in him. He thinks about how when Albus hadn’t been speaking to him, his dad had sat with him until he’d stopped crying. He thinks about how he has seen little flashes of good in his dad and how the whole story won’t reflect those and how maybe that’s not quite fair.

He lifts his head and briefly meets his dad’s eyes, then he nods and looks down at his feet again. “I think I’m sorry too,” he murmurs. Then he gives the password to the gargoyle, which springs aside to let him step onto the moving spiral staircase that’s going to take him up to meet his fate.


End file.
